30 November 2004

Terence McKenna's Voice

Years ago, me and my friends tried hard to make Terence McKenna's voice synonymous with tripping our faces off (at least one of us never regained their face). I think I had every album he was ever on - Spacetime Continuum, Zuvuya, The Shamen, Psychic TV - and it's only now that I know why. At the time I'm sure I thought it was the words that drew me in ; his Machine-Elf visions of a global out there, his fractal logic, his archaic revivals. I thought that maybe he was hinting at a cosmic scene beyond the rainy days in Somerset and Swansea...but now, I know the real answer: Terence McKenna's voice is the kind of thing you want to hear when you think the world is collapsing. The words didn't matter at all, the voice is everything. He could have rambled on about Christian Fundamentalism and he'd still have drawn me in.

He sounded like a counter-cultural John Noakes, a psyched up and out John Peel, that Californian scientist on the Fast Show. He sounded like I wanted all old people to sound and somehow I think that was comforting at a level I'm still reluctant to fully explore (I can still hear myself sobbing: I was a push of love child, I was a push of love child...)

All from the Spacetime Continuum album 'Alien Dreamtime' featuring Terence McKenna.

Denatured by
Loki

5 comments:

Anonymous
said...

OMFG! I never ever dreamt I'd read anything about Terence McKenna's voice. Wow. I used to listen to him on an LA radio station in the middle of the night, KPPC, and I always thought he sounded like Mr. Green Jeans on Yage. Hey hey what can I say except..... THANKS!!!!!